“Close Encounters,” the 200th hour of “Dallas,” is the kind of episode only this show could produce. Most of the action takes place at a Southfork charity rodeo, where the characters wheel, deal and confront each other over their various romantic entanglements — taking occasional breaks to climb into a saddle and test their calf-roping […]

You know J.R. Ewing is having a bad week when he gets kneed in the groin and it’s the least of his problems. Such is our hero’s fate in “Sins of the Fathers.” The assault-by-patella occurs when J.R. tries to force himself upon Sue Ellen and she strikes back as only she can. He’s also […]

“Dallas’s” third season offers lots to celebrate – and a few things to curse. Performances Larry Hagman and Linda Gray do mighty impressive work in Season 3, but even they can’t touch Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes. Since I began re-watching “Dallas,” the nicest discovery has been how good Davis is as Jock, especially […]

In “Sue Ellen’s Choice,” our heroine wrestles with two options: She can leave J.R. for Dusty and lose custody of her son, or she can stay married and keep the baby. If other possibilities exist, “Dallas” doesn’t present them. Sue Ellen ultimately chooses to stick with J.R., and I suppose we should admire her for […]

Sue Ellen is “Dallas’s” classiest dresser, so when she wears jeans in “Rodeo,” it’s worth noting. Yes, there are practical reasons for this particular wardrobe choice – what else would one wear to a rodeo? – but the denim carries symbolic value, too. Jeans have signified defiance since James Dean popularized them in “Rebel Without […]

In “Rodeo,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie and Digger (Barbara Bel Geddes, Keenan Wynn) stroll together alongside a fence at Southfork. DIGGER: All those months in California put some money in my pocket. Made me remember how good it feels to work hard and get paid for it. I have been on the wagon […]

Rodeos pit man against beast and on “Dallas,” no one is more beastly than J.R. In “Rodeo,” Sue Ellen, having failed to tame her savage husband, considers climbing in the saddle with a man who seems far less brutish: Dusty Farlow. Sue Ellen meets the dashing cowboy when she enters a Braddock café with an […]